To maintain safety, PPE products require routine maintenance and appropriate training for the personnel using the PPE products. Managing the safety of PPE products in the field can be a challenge for any company having workers at one or more locations that utilize PPE products.
In this regard, it is important for a company to appropriately maintain the PPE products that its workers use, ensure that such workers are properly trained with respect to the specific PPE items that they use, remain current on the requirements and standards for the PPE products that they use, and ensure that appropriate PPE products are being utilized by the personnel at each particular job site. To this end, it is known to provide automated systems that utilize accessible electronic databases containing lists of the specific PPE items the personal protection equipment that are used by a company and the safety information relevant to those specific PPE items so that the company can be assisted in managing the safety of and/or the PPE products used by its personnel. Such automated systems are known to use Low Frequency and/or High Frequency RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips and 2D bar codes attached to each personal protection equipment item used by a company so that the company can track the safety information relevant to those personal protection equipment items.
The RFID chips and 2D bar codes of conventional systems typically have a 96 bit or smaller identifier encoded or inscribed therein that can be read by a mobile or handheld reader/scanner that is placed closely adjacent the RFID chip and/or bar code so as to wirelessly receive or scan the identifiers. The identifier and the corresponding item of PPE can then be assigned to a particular worker and/or a particular worksite. This information can then be used to access the electronic databases to obtain the safety information relevant to each specific PPE item assigned to a particular worker and/or to a particular worksite. While such systems may perform acceptably for their intended function, there is always room for improvement.